Ces dames préfèrent le mambo (1957) - film review

Sea-farer Burt Brickford is engaged to captain the yacht of the wealthy Henery Legrand, ostensibly for a pleasure trip in the Gulf of Mexico.  From the outset, Brickford suspects that something is amiss.  Sure enough, he discovers several cases of dynamite in the ship’s hold and his paymasters are forced to admit that they are planning to recover the lost treasure of a sunken galleon.  Yet this turns out to be just another smoke screen.  Just what are Legrand and his entourage up to…?

Eddie Constantine stars in this somewhat lacklustre pastiche of film noir and American-style action/adventure, a formula that was hugely popular in France in the 1950s.  Having played the redoubtable FBI agent Lemmy Caution in a dozen or so similar films, Eddie Constantine became one of the biggest stars in French cinema, much loved on account of his smooth American charm with accent to match.  These films are very much a product of their time, intended to serve an intense craving for all things American, and consequently now appear very dated and rather shallow.

Watching Ces dames préfèrent le mambo you’d be mistaken for thinking you had tuned into an episode of the “Eddie Constantine show” – so strong is the lead actor’s presence in the film that everything else (including the magnificent Lino Ventura) appears superfluous.  Like most of the films in this series, it is best appreciated as a well-intended parody of the B-movie genre, indeed a parody of itself.  The most enjoyable part of this film is its last few scenes, culminating with a wonderfully camp send-up of the Lemmy Caution series.   Pigez?

© James Travers 2004

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